Ahead of the planned nationwide protest, the Defence Headquarters has warned that the military would resist any form of violence and anarchy that may arise in the course of the planned protest.

Director of the Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba who gave the warning today at the biweekly briefing of the various activities of the military and other security agencies in Abuja , stated emphatically that the military would not watch any anarchy befall Nigeria as the result of the protest.

He noted that indications shows that there are plots by unscrupulous element to hijack the planned protest and turn it into a violent one, replicating the recent protest turned anarchy demonstration in Kenya. He said the troops will act dutifully to forestall such ugly occurrences from happening in Nigeria.

General Buba, added that the citizen's constitutional rights to peaceful protest does not warrant mobilization for anarchy.
He however appealed to Nigerians to take into consideration the timing and atmosphere of the hardship in the country that could make the protest degenerate to violence, and maintain cool heads in order for the government to further remedy the current hardship in the country.

Speaking on the achievements of the troops in the last two weeks, the director said the troops have sustained momentum against the oil theft perpetrators with it unified command structure of operation in the South-South region.

He added that troops in the South-South region arrested 33 perpetrators of oil theft, discovered 36 illegal refining sites containing 20 dugout pits, 34 storage tanks, 56 cooking ovens, 18 drums, 14 pumping machines, while denying oil theft estimated sum of Seven Hundred and Ninety Three Million Five Hundred and Thirty Six Thousand Naira (N793,536,000.00) only in the period under review.